Tom Thumb

A poor woodman sat in his
cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the fireside, while his wife
sat by his side spinning. "How lonely it is, wife," said
he, as he puffed out a long curl of smoke, "for you and me to
sit here by ourselves, without any children to play about and amuse
us while other people seem so happy and merry with their children!"
"What you say is very true," said the wife, sighing, and
turning round her wheel; "how happy should I be if I had but
one child! If it were ever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than
my thumb I should be very happy, and love it dearly." Now--odd
as you may think it it came to pass that this good woman's wish
was fulfilled, just in the very way she had wished it; for, not long
afterwards, she had a little boy, who was quite healthy and strong,
but was not much bigger than my thumb. So they said, "Well, we
cannot say we have not got what we wished for, and, little as he is,
we will love him dearly." And they called him Thomas Thumb.

They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never
grew bigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was
born. Still, his eyes were sharp and sparkling, and he soon showed
himself to be a clever little fellow, who always knew well what he
was about.

One day, as the woodman was getting ready to go into the wood to
cut fuel, he said, "I wish I had someone to bring the cart after
me, for I want to make haste." "Oh, father," cried
Tom, "I will take care of that; the cart shall be in the wood
by the time you want it." Then the woodman laughed, and said,
"How can that be? You cannot reach up to the horse's bridle."
"Never mind that, father," said Tom; "if my mother
will only harness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him
which way to go." "Well," said the father, "we
will try for once."

When the time came the mother harnessed the horse to the cart, and
put Tom into his ear; and as he sat there the little man told the
beast how to go, crying out, "Go on!" and "Stop!"
as he wanted: and thus the horse went on just as well as if the woodman
had driven it himself into the wood. It happened that as the horse
was going a little too fast, and Tom was calling out, "Gently!
gently!" two strangers came up. "What an odd thing that
is!" said one: "there is a cart going along, and I hear
a carter talking to the horse, but yet I can see no one." "That
is queer, indeed," said the other; "let us follow the cart,
and see where it goes." So they went on into the wood, till at
last they came to the place where the woodman was. Then Tom Thumb,
seeing his father, cried out, "See, father, here I am with the
cart, all right and safe! Now take me down!" So his father took
hold of the horse with one hand, and with the other took his son out
of the horse's ear, and put him down upon a straw, where he sat as
merry as you please.

The two strangers were all this time looking on, and did not know
what to say for wonder. At last one took the other aside, and said,
"That little urchin will make our fortune, if we can get him,
and carry him about from town to town as a show; we must buy him."
So they went up to the woodman, and asked him what he would take for
the little man. "He will be better off," said they, "with
us than with you." "I won't sell him at all," said
the father; "my own flesh and blood is dearer to me than all
the silver and gold in the world." But Tom, hearing of the bargain
they wanted to make, crept up his father's coat to his shoulder and
whispered in his ear, "Take the money, father, and let them have
me; I'll soon come back to you."

So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for
a large piece of gold, and they paid the price. "Where would
you like to sit?" said one of them. "Oh, put me on the rim
of your hat; that will be a nice gallery for me; I can walk about
there and see the country as we go along." So they did as he
wished; and when Tom had taken leave of his father they took him away
with them.

They journeyed on till it began to be dusky, and then the little
man said, "Let me get down, I'm tired." So the man took
off his hat, and put him down on a clod of earth, in a ploughed field
by the side of the road. But Tom ran about amongst the furrows, and
at last slipped into an old mouse-hole. "Good night, my masters!"
said he, "I'm off! Mind and look sharp after me the next time."
Then they ran at once to the place, and poked the ends of their sticks
into the mouse-hole, but all in vain; Tom only crawled farther and
farther in; and at last it became quite dark, so that they were forced
to go their way without their prize, as sulky as could be.

When Tom found they were gone, he came out of his hiding-place. "What
dangerous walking it is," said he, "in this ploughed field!
If I were to fall from one of these great clods, I should undoubtedly
break my neck." At last, by good luck, he found a large empty
snail-shell. "This is lucky," said he, "I can sleep
here very well"; and in he crept.

Just as he was falling asleep, he heard two men passing by, chatting
together; and one said to the other, "How can we rob that rich
parson's house of his silver and gold?" "I'll tell you!"
cried Tom. "What noise was that?" said the thief, frightened;
"I'm sure I heard someone speak." They stood still listening,
and Tom said, "Take me with you, and I'll soon show you how to
get the parson's money." "But where are you?" said
they. "Look about on the ground," answered he, "and
listen where the sound comes from." At last the thieves found
him out, and lifted him up in their hands. "You little urchin!"
they said, "what can you do for us?" "Why, I can get
between the iron window-bars of the parson's house, and throw you
out whatever you want." "That's a good thought," said
the thieves; "come along, we shall see what you can do."

When they came to the parson's house, Tom slipped through the window-
bars into the room, and then called out as loud as he could bawl,
"Will you have all that is here?" At this the thieves were
frightened, and said, "Softly, softly! Speak low, that you may
not awaken anybody." But Tom seemed as if he did not understand
them, and bawled out again, "How much will you have? Shall I
throw it all out?" Now the cook lay in the next room; and hearing
a noise she raised herself up in her bed and listened. Meantime the
thieves were frightened, and ran off a little way; but at last they
plucked up their hearts, and said, "The little urchin is only
trying to make fools of us." So they came back and whispered
softly to him, saying, "Now let us have no more of your roguish
jokes; but throw us out some of the money." Then Tom called out
as loud as he could, "Very well! hold your hands! here it comes."

The cook heard this quite plain, so she sprang out of bed, and ran
to open the door. The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails:
and the maid, having groped about and found nothing, went away for
a light. By the time she came back, Tom had slipped off into the barn;
and when she had looked about and searched every hole and corner,
and found nobody, she went to bed, thinking she must have been dreaming
with her eyes open.

The little man crawled about in the hayloft, and at last found a
snug place to finish his night's rest in; so he laid himself down,
meaning to sleep till daylight, and then find his way home to his
father and mother. But alas! How woefully he was undone! What crosses
and sorrows happen to us all in this world! The cook got up early,
before daybreak, to feed the cows; and going straight to the hayloft,
carried away a large bundle of hay, with the little man in the middle
of it, fast asleep. He still, however, slept on, and did not awake
till he found himself in the mouth of the cow; for the cook had put
the hay into the cow's rick, and the cow had taken Tom up in a mouthful
of it. "Good lack-a-day!" said he, "how came I to tumble
into the mill?" But he soon found out where he really was; and
was forced to have all his wits about him, that he might not get between
the cow's teeth, and so be crushed to death. At last down he went
into her stomach. "It is rather dark," said he; "they
forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in; a candle would
be no bad thing."

Though he made the best of his bad luck, he did not like his quarters
at all; and the worst of it was, that more and more hay was always
coming down, and the space left for him became smaller and smaller.
At last he cried out as loud as he could, "Don't bring me any
more hay! Don't bring me any more hay!"

The maid happened to be just then milking the cow; and hearing someone
speak, but seeing nobody, and yet being quite sure it was the same
voice that she had heard in the night, she was so frightened that
she fell off her stool, and overset the milk-pail. As soon as she
could pick herself up out of the dirt, she ran off as fast as she
could to her master the parson, and said, "Sir, sir, the cow
is talking!" But the parson said, "Woman, thou art surely
mad!" However, he went with her into the cow-house, to try and
see what was the matter.

Scarcely had they set foot on the threshold, when Tom called out,
"Don't bring me any more hay!" Then the parson himself was
frightened; and thinking the cow was surely bewitched, told his man
to kill her on the spot. So the cow was killed, and cut up; and the
stomach, in which Tom lay, was thrown out upon a dunghill.

Tom soon set himself to work to get out, which was not a very easy
task; but at last, just as he had made room to get his head out, fresh
ill-luck befell him. A hungry wolf sprang out, and swallowed up the
whole stomach, with Tom in it, at one gulp, and ran away.

Tom, however, was still not disheartened; and thinking the wolf would
not dislike having some chat with him as he was going along, he called
out, "My good friend, I can show you a famous treat." "Where's
that?" said the wolf. "In such and such a house," said
Tom, describing his own father's house. "You can crawl through
the drain into the kitchen and then into the pantry, and there you
will find cakes, ham, beef, cold chicken, roast pig, apple-dumplings,
and everything that your heart can wish."

The wolf did not want to be asked twice; so that very night he went
to the house and crawled through the drain into the kitchen, and then
into the pantry, and ate and drank there to his heart's content. As
soon as he had had enough he wanted to get away; but he had eaten
so much that he could not go out by the same way he came in.

This was just what Tom had reckoned upon; and now he began to set
up a great shout, making all the noise he could. "Will you be
easy?" said the wolf; "you'll awaken everybody in the house
if you make such a clatter." "What's that to me?" said
the little man; "you have had your frolic, now I've a mind to
be merry myself"; and he began, singing and shouting as loud
as he could.

The woodman and his wife, being awakened by the noise, peeped through
a crack in the door; but when they saw a wolf was there, you may well
suppose that they were sadly frightened; and the woodman ran for his
axe, and gave his wife a scythe. "Do you stay behind," said
the woodman, "and when I have knocked him on the head you must
rip him up with the scythe." Tom heard all this, and cried out,
"Father, father! I am here, the wolf has swallowed me."
And his father said, "Heaven be praised! we have found our dear
child again"; and he told his wife not to use the scythe for
fear she should hurt him. Then he aimed a great blow, and struck the
wolf on the head, and killed him on the spot! and when he was dead
they cut open his body, and set Tommy free. "Ah!" said the
father, "what fears we have had for you!" "Yes, father,"
answered he; "I have traveled all over the world, I think, in
one way or other, since we parted; and now I am very glad to come
home and get fresh air again." "Why, where have you been?"
said his father. "I have been in a mouse-hole and in a
snail-shell and down a cow's throat and in the wolf's
belly; and yet here I am again, safe and sound."

"Well," said they, "you are come back, and we will
not sell you again for all the riches in the world."

Then they hugged and kissed their dear little son, and gave him plenty
to eat and drink, for he was very hungry; and then they fetched new
clothes for him, for his old ones had been quite spoiled on his journey.
So Master Thumb stayed at home with his father and mother, in peace;
for though he had been so great a traveler, and had done and seen
so many fine things, and was fond enough of telling the whole story,
he always agreed that, after all, there's no place like HOME!